Venezuela risks turn political

NEW YORK, Jan 16 (IFR) - Market participants are
increasingly turning their attention to the potential for a
regime change in Venezuela, as shortages of basic goods and a
prolonged slump in oil prices have turned up the heat on
President Maduro.

As the authorities scramble to find additional resources to
plug a widening external gap ahead of hefty debt redemptions
this year, some have started to call into question Maduro's
ability to remain in power.

"There has been so much focus on the cashflow analysis and
default risk and perhaps insufficient focus on political risk,"
Siobhan Morden, head of Latin America strategy at Jefferies,
wrote in a note to clients this week. "We cannot assume that the
Maduro administration can politically survive through a
protracted period of acute stagflation and widespread
shortages."

With oil prices expected to remain near multi-year lows -
Goldman Sachs lowered its three-month forecast for Brent crude
to US$42 a barrel from US$80 on Monday - financial pressures on
the recession-hit country are mounting.

Moody's, which this week downgraded the sovereign by two
notches to Caa3, said it expected Venezuela's current account
balance to swing to a deficit of 2% of GDP in 2015 - the
country's first yearly deficit since 1998.

In the bear-case scenario of oil prices averaging US$53 a
barrel in 2015, analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate Venezuela
will face a funding gap of about US$36bn this year - a far cry
from the US$20bn-$25bn range most analysts were discussing just
a month ago.

Piecemeal attempts at tackling the country's economic crisis
have so far done little to improve market confidence. Even
Maduro's announcement earlier in January of US$20bn worth of new
financing agreements with China was played down as ineffective
by many observers.

"People expected Venezuela to implement economic reforms and
policy changes, but what we have seen is a political vacuum,"
said Paolo Valle, a senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset
Management.
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